Crunch Time

Life has been absolutely insane lately. New semester, new classes, new baby coming (it's a girl!). Most stressful of all, I'll be applying for the animation program at BYU in, what, two months? I feel less and less ready every day, but it'll be fun.
I've got an Intermediate Life Drawing class (where we learn to draw "intermediate life") taught by Jamin LeFave (cool name, huh?). He's amazing! The class has been pretty intense so far, but I love it.
Anyway, here's the first completed drawing of mine from that class. Let me know what you think!

20th Post Extravaganza!!!

Well, not really. I'm just a-postin' my final for Intro to Animation. It's still really rough (to say nothing of the obvious faceless golfer metaphor), but I'm happy with it.

Exciting News!

Mr. Peanut

So I am loving my animation class... it has totally consumed my life away from home (and a lot of it there, too). I haven't gone to my gen ed health class in like a month. That's how bad (or good) this obsession has become.
And to prove it, here is my second flour sack drop animation for the class (the first one was up to nearly 400 frames--and looking decent-- before I scrapped it for something simpler). This one got mostly good reviews, except I guess he's too rubbery. Oh, and Kelly said that he looks more like a peanut than a sack of flour (which is true. My bad!). Hopefully I can go back and fix it up, but I kinda like what I've got. Let me know what you think (oh, and sorry if it's too dark)!

Gorilla On My Back

For some strange reason, the past couple of weeks I have seen a sharp decline in my figure drawing abilities, especially during class. I've hit some kind of slump (which is sad considering I wasn't great to begin with), and I'm currently researching preferred methods of major league baseball players for getting out of said slump.
Today was particularly frustrating in figure drawing class, until we got to do caricatures of each other! What fun that was! I was quite happy with how mine turned out, and since there is no more room on my mom's fridge, I decided I'd post them here! I hope you enjoy these vague resemblances of people you probably don't know...

This is Elle (she has a super-cool blog here). Her jaw is not nearly this square and masculine...


This is Garrett (he does not have a super-cool blog here). One time in class he had the hiccups for like two hours straight. Now that you know a little bit about him, doesn't this caricature look just like him?


This is Allen (he has a super-cool blog with an infinitely better portrait of Elle here). He has some cool hair (I'm jealous). He's not really this blurry in real life.


This is Claire (not to be confused with the Claire who has a super-cool blog here). Yes, that moustache was really there. No, it is not a real moustache.


And this was my favorite of the night, the legendary Johnathan Whiting. He's been caricature-ing me left and right in goblin poses all semester, and I am glad to say I got him back. I got him back good. (He has a super cool blog here and here.)

Anyways, thanks for the indulge!

"It's Better than 'Barf Bag'..."

I was assigned to whip up a poster for my job, encouraging patrons to copyright their work (and to respect everything else that has been copyrighted).

I didn't always feel so strongly about this kinda stuff (copyrights, not cavemen)... but then my wife started recording music (check it out here) and now I realize how important it is to respect someone else's livelihood. Lots of people hearken to "thou shalt not steal," right? Well, taking something that isn't meant to be free is stealing.

Sorry to get all preachy on you. To make up for it, here's a picture of what I would look like if I were a rodeo princess (which I'm not).

Midterms and Lost in Translation...

Midterms! Midterms! Midterms!
My figure drawing class is going fairly well (I'm learning a lot, but still have a long way to go!). The teacher, Scott T. Petersen, is great at getting us to put some life and personality into our work. We've focused a ton on story, setting and motivation (quite a bit more than anatomy or technique), and I must say it's been a blast. Here are some of the better pieces that have come out of whatever instrument happens to be in my hand...

On a somewhat related note, I have officially begun my first Animation class at the Y (and, yes, "Animation" should always be capitalized!). Kelly Loosli is my instructor there, and he is hilarious. This is the legendary bouncing ball... Prepare to yawn:

And, on a final (and altogether unrelated) note, my wife dropped everything and went to China for six months (before we met, surprisingly enough) to teach English to some youngsters over there (she had the time of her life--or so I'm told). Anyway, she brought back a ton of Chinese-crafted stuff, most of which features some sort of poor translation into English. The prize of her collection is this lovely jacket.

Take a look-see (be sure to read slowly!):

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. We have, however, agreed to name our firstborn "Sinrill" (boy or girl-- it's all good).

The front of it reads:

Is that not the funniest thing you've ever seen? If not, I shall eat my hat! (Let me know-- I'll get the ketchup ready)

Anyway, just want to put that out there. Thanks to all you who stop by to read my blog. It's been fun to see this little creation of mine increase in poipularity. Hopefully this blog is constantly directing you to higher fhings!

Comics Are Fun, Five Times Fast!

This really happened to me (or at least most of it).


P.S. It's funny how poorly drawn the "super-sketchable" part is.

Hold on Tight

Here's a little doodle from the other day. I have nothing interesting to say about it.

But blogger does have a handy new "following" feature. Basically it lets you list yourself as an official fan of a blog, and they'll send updates to your dashboard. I think it will also help strengthen the community aspect of the blogosphere (which is one of my favorite parts about blogging).
So if you'd like to become a follower of the greatest blog ever, all you have to do is click "Become a Follower" on the Avalanche Software blog. But you can follow mine too, if you want! Tips are appreciated.

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